WWII Flashcards
What political factors(2) contributed to Japan’s aggression?
Paramilitary groups grew 1920s
Angry with direction of country = westernization
Undermined governments control
Forcibly took over Manchuria
Left league of Nations over it
What economic factors(2) contributed to Japan’s aggression?
Needed more territory to remain industrial strong
economic inequality growing
concentration of wealth in zaibatsu
Concentration of industry to one family
rapidly growing population
Inflation /food prices = food riots, food shortage
What social factors (2) contributed to Japan’s aggression?
Japanese people demanded a return to traditional ideas in education/ politics
Wanted to focus on becoming dominating force in Asia
Did not want to cooperate with the West
Purge all western culture
How did the second Sino-Japanese start ?
Chinese and Japanese forces clashed south of Beijing at the Marco Polo Bridge.
escalated into a full-scale Japanese invasion and the start
What was the Rape of Nanking
As the Japanese took the city of Nanking, they killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in brutal ways.
What was the first step towards war Hitler took?
He started rebuilding his military and stopped paying reparations
What was important about Hitler and the Rhineland?
Put his military in the region between France and Germany that was taken away from Germany in Treaty
How did Hitler take over Austria?
Through a “fair vote”. He placed his military there and forced their government to vote to combine with Germany
What was the outcome of the Munich conference? Why was it convened?
The allies meet with Hitler to try and stop him from expanding more. Hitler promised that he would stop after he took over the sudetenland( portion of czechoslovakia that has a lot of German citizens)
Why did Hitler/ Germans want the above things?
He wanted to make Germany powerful again, expand their living space, and combine all the German speaking people into one empire.
What is appeasement?
diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict.
What are the four reasons why Europe allowed appeasement?
-The Allied Powers were in the depths of the Great Depression, and did not have the money to be involved in another war.
-The memory of World War 1 was still fresh, and none of the world wanted to do that again.
They were trying to convince themselves that Hitler’s demands were reasonable, and hoped he would be satisfied if he got what he wanted
The militaries of the Allied countries were still recovering from WW1
What were 4 consequences of appeasement for the Allies?
Allowed Hitler to control a larger population to use as an army
Allowed Hitler to control a more people to tax and gather wealth from
Made Hitler seem invincible to his own people, so they bought into him as a leader
Allowed the Germans to control areas with tons of resources like iron, coal, and agricultural land
What was the Non-aggression pact? Why did Hitler want this?
Hitler made a pact with Stalin and USSR- to not fight each other and instead share Poland and divide it in half.
He did not want to fight in a two-front war
What event started WWII? Why.
Hitler invading Poland- the allies promised to protect and defend Poland from Hitler
What is blitzkrieg? How did it work?
Means LIGHTNING war
Used BOMBERS, followed by TANKS, and waves of TROOPS, all without any WARNING to penetrate the other line
Dunkirk (both negative and positive)
Germany surrounded the FRENCH army, who retreated to the city of DUNKIRK in NORTHERN FRANCE, on the coast of the ENGLISH CHANNEL
The British NAVY and CIVILIANS sent a total of 850 ships and boats to ferry the troops to BRITAIN
Saved 338,000 Allied soldiers, but left France UNDEFENDED
Fell to Hitler after 1 week, but soldiers and britain used for D’DAY
Battle of Britain
Plan was to take out AIR FORCE, and then BOMB cities
Couldn’t INVADE because it’s an ISLAND
Thought this would DEMORALIZE the British so they would GIVE UP
British developed RADAR, which helped them win the AIR BATTLE (called the Battle of BRITAIN and lasts for 1 year) as well as WITHSTAND the bombings
Hitler eventually GAVE UP on Britain
Stalingrad
Stalingrad was a major INDUSTRIAL, COMMUNICATION, and TRANSPORTATION center and near huge OIL fields
bloodiest battle in WW2
Bombing raids nightly= destroyed city
Hand to hand combat
No retreat orders
turning point for the war in the East.
From this point on, Hitler’s armies were pushed back into Germany.
Pearl Harbor
Japan’s surprise attack on the United States harbor military ships. They were angry about the US trying to limit their expansion in Asia. This brought America into the war.
D-day
The Allied Powers (BRITAIN, FRANCE, and the US) brought together 3.5 MILLION troops in BRITAIN to invade GERMANY
JUNE 6, 1944 – Called D-DAY
Even with huge CASUALTIES, the Allies hung onto the BEACHES in France, which allowed another MILLION TROOPS and SUPPLIES to land
This put the Nazi armies into a 2-FRONT war they began to be OVERWHELMED by the RUSSIANS in the EAST and the ALLIES in the WEST
Battle of the Bulge
American soldiers vs German -Last try for Hitler
Cold weather set back for allies , Large losses for allies
HItler Was not able to stop the allies, Nazis fell shortly after
Who are the allies?
Britain, france, United States, Soviet Union, China
Who are the Axis Powers?
Japan, Germany, Italy
When does the European Front end? ( How does it end)
Hitler committed suicide as Russia was coming into Berlin after he lost Battle of Bulge
What two cities does the US drop Atomic Bombs on?
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Why did the US drop the atomic bomb?( 3 reasons)
The invasion of Japan would have been costly in terms of lives, both Japanese and American
We wanted to show off our new weapons to the Soviets as a show of our power.
Knew the Japanese would not surrender easily without forced
What decisions were made at the Potsdam / Yalta Conference?
Split Europe into two
East- Communist controlled
West- Democratic and capitalist controlled
What was the purpose of the Nuremberg Trials?
Attempted to bring justice to the Nazi LEADERSHIP in Germany
Run by the United Nations
Important step towards having an international court to prosecute war crimes and “crimes against humanity”
Why were the Nuremberg Trials important for German people?
Helped show the German citizens the atrocities of Hitler and Nazis
What are the major functions of the United Nations
general Assembly
All countries have a vote in world affairs
Economic and Social
Gives loans to developing countries
Deals with disease outbreaks and health
Helps children in developing countries
Security Council
Can step into conflicts in countries to stop them from escalating into war
How did Japan change after World War 2?
The United States took CONTROL of Japan
Forced it to DEMILITARIZE
Lost all COLONIES
EMPEROR had to admit he was not a GOD- but was allowed to stay in power to help transition to democracy
Tokyo trials- convinced war criminals
Became ALLIES with the US during the COLD WAR
